Biz Babes: Citigroups Dominatrix

She went from being a little known analyst to becoming the voice Wall Streeters fear the most.

Meredith Whitney, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co., made the gutsy call of blasting Citigroup (owners of Citi Bank) in an October report. At the time, other analysts did not agree with her take on Citi, and she was forced to stand out in the crowd.

The day after her report was released, shares of Citi dropped tremendously, and days after that, Chuck Prince, the CEO of Citi, resigned from his position.

Whitney realized what many other analysts refused to believe. Bloomberg described her report, saying:

She pointed out that the company’s dividend now exceeded its profits — the bank was handing money back to its investors faster than it was taking it in from its customers. The U.S.’s biggest bank was being managed to ensure only its bankruptcy. Citigroup would need either to raise capital, sell assets or slash its dividend — possibly all three.

This was a shocker for the market, but it only caused Whitney’s reputation to grow. A month later she would issue equally provocative reports lambasting the Wall Street banks for being at the mercy of the credit rating agencies.

Whitney keeps it coming, and now her name is one of the most feared on the street. She is known for coming down hard on the big banks and has proven she knows what she’s talking about.

She now says she gets death threats and harassing calls at her home and office on a regular basis. Apparently, some people don’t like losing money when she calls out their stock.

But there’s no need to worry about her safety, she’s married to a former WWE-champion wrestler, John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL). He definitely knows how to bust a few Wall Street skulls if needed.